Bezos’s Blue Origin May Leapfrog SpaceX as NASA’s Lunar Lander Decide for Artemis 3

With SpaceX’s lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis 3 mission going through important delays, the company is seeking to rivals who might present a lander sooner. Blue Origin is a number one contender, however can Jeff Bezos’s firm actually beat Elon Musk again to the Moon?

Current developments counsel it might. Jacqueline Cortese, Blue Origin’s Senior Director of Civil Area, represented the corporate on a Tuesday panel on the American Astronautical Society’s 2025 von Braun Area Exploration Symposium. In the course of the occasion, she mentioned Blue Origin’s progress on its Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) and Blue Moon Mark 2 (MK2) landers, SpaceflightNow reports.

Based on Cortese, Blue Origin might launch an MK1 demonstration mission earlier than the tip of the yr. MK1 is a cargo lander designed to ultimately ferry as much as 3 tons of payload to the lunar floor. It’s a stepping stone to the MK2 crew lander, which might (theoretically) substitute SpaceX’s Starship Human Touchdown System (HLS) because the Artemis 3 lander—if it’s prepared first.

“Particularly with MK1 and a few of our previous work we’re doing, we have now what we expect are some good concepts about possibly a extra incremental method that could possibly be taken benefit of for an acceleration-type situation,” Cortese mentioned, as SpaceflightNow reviews.

SpaceX delays open the door for Blue Origin

SpaceX signed a $2.9 billion contract with NASA in 2021 to supply the primary crewed lunar lander for the company’s Artemis program. Starship HLS—a modified model of the megarocket’s higher stage—is slated to land the Artemis 3 astronauts on the Moon someday in mid-2027.

After a tough begin to Starship’s 2025 launch schedule, nonetheless, unmet technical milestones have piled up. Now, consultants fear that Starship HLS could be years late for a 2027 Artemis 3 Moon touchdown.

Starship’s challenges largely stem from the truth that it’s the biggest, most advanced launch automobile ever constructed. This presents important logistical challenges to touchdown on the Moon—it should actually require an elevator to convey astronauts all the way down to the lunar floor. And because it’s nonetheless within the early levels of improvement, its lunar touchdown capabilities stay unproven.

Throughout two on-air media appearances final week, performing NASA administrator Sean Duffy mentioned he would reopen the Artemis 3 contract to competing spaceflight firms to make sure the U.S. returns to the Moon earlier than the tip of President Trump’s time period. The announcement appeared to ruffle Musk’s feathers, prompting the SpaceX CEO to hurl insults at Duffy via X.

“I’m going to let different house firms compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin, and once more, no matter one can get us there first, to the Moon, we’re going to take,” Duffy said on CNBC.

How Blue Origin might get there quicker

The Blue Moon landers supply a stage of simplicity Starship HLS simply can’t present. Not solely are they primarily based on a largely confirmed idea, they’re additionally a lot smaller, with a decrease heart of gravity and a neater dismount. What’s extra, they’re being constructed by a large staff of extremely outfitted engineers throughout Blue Origin, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Draper, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics.

NASA has already contracted Blue Origin’s MK2 for the Artemis 5 mission, which gained’t launch for one more a number of years. However the firm can also be growing plans for MK2 that might expedite Artemis 3.

Throughout Tuesday’s panel, Cortese reportedly mentioned that an MK1 lander is present process closing stacking at a devoted manufacturing facility in Port Canaveral in Florida. As soon as stacking is full, the spacecraft shall be transported to NASA’s Johnson Area Middle in Houston, Texas, for a collection of exams that simulate the vacuum and excessive temperature fluctuations of house.

MK1’s inaugural demonstration mission—dubbed “Pathfinder”—will try and land on the Moon’s south pole. This can permit Blue Origin to check important methods and validate {hardware} for the MK2 lander. The mission will even carry two NASA payloads: SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for Lunar-Plume Floor Research) and LRA (Laser Retroreflective Array).

Cortese mentioned the check flight “would launch within the subsequent couple of weeks,” although she didn’t supply specifics concerning the timeline. If Blue Origin manages to get this mission off the bottom earlier than 2026, it might speed up the event of MK2 forward of its Artemis 5 schedule, as the 2 landers share a lot of the identical {hardware}.

That mentioned, Blue Origin will nonetheless face main hurdles to launching a crewed MK2 mission, specifically demonstrating a propellant switch, validating the spacecraft’s life-support system, and buying crew certification. And even when NASA did choose it for Artemis 3, integrating this various touchdown system into the present Artemis 3 structure might current unexpected challenges.

For now, the stress stays on SpaceX to ship a viable human touchdown system earlier than mid-2027. Whether or not Blue Origin’s progress lights a hearth beneath Musk’s firm stays to be seen.